Talk:Magical Theory (class)
Class Is this a canon subject? We never hear of it in the books? Ninclow 22:39, March 29, 2015 (UTC) Good point. Pottermore gives us a complete list of the subjects, and Magical Theory is not included. --Rodolphus (talk) 07:32, March 30, 2015 (UTC) Where on Pottermore do we see the complete list? Ninclow 16:31, March 31, 2015 (UTC) In the Charms class moment in book 1. Its an unlockable content.--Rodolphus (talk) 16:37, March 31, 2015 (UTC) :The Pottermore entry also notes that specialized subjects are offered when there is sufficient demand, therefore this class (along with other film/game only classes) could conceivably be examples of that. -- 1337star (Drop me a line!) 18:14, March 31, 2015 (UTC) The specialised classes are only offered to NEWT level students, not to first years.--Rodolphus (talk) 18:21, March 31, 2015 (UTC) That is true, Rodolphus, but as Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling is said to provide the reader with 'all you will ever need to know about what makes spells work', it seems to imply that the subject indeed is equivalent to physics/biology. Let me give you a non-canon example; if someone ask a Professor of Transfiguration where Vanished objects go, the answer will be something like; “''Into non being, which is to say, everything,” However, if you asked a Professor of Magical Theory the same question, or gave said professor that answer to the same question would perhaps be something like; ' ''Matter cannot be in two places at once, nor can it be both everywhere and nowhere. Matter is made up almost entirely of nothing. Atoms collect in space, forming a shape that, from our vantage point, seems solid. For example; a candlestick seems to us to be a single, very solid item, but is, in fact, trillions of tiny motes hovering with just enough proximity to one another as to imply shape and weight to our clumsy perspective. When we vanish it, we are not moving the candlestick, or destroying it, or causing the matter that comprised it to cease being. Instead, we have altered the arrangement of the spaces between those atoms. By vanishing it, we have expanded the distance from point to point, perhaps a thousandfold, perhaps a million fold. The multiplication of those spaces expands the candlestick to a point of nearly planetary dimensions. The result is that we can actually walk through it, through the spaces between its atoms, and never even notice. In short, the candlestick is still here. It has simply been expanded so greatly, thinned to such an ephemeral level as to become physically insubstantial. It is, in effect, everywhere, and nowhere. ' And I'm sure we all can imagine that people like Dumbledore would argue that the study of magic extends far beyond the pronunciation of incantations and proper wand movements. Although this is often the primary focus we are given as readers, I can easily imagine that in Rowling's wizarding world, in 'reality', only an acute study of the theoretical principals behind magic can allow one to unlock his or her complete range of magical abilities. Alas, it does not sound unreasonable to assume that it is taught at Hogwarts for older students, as people like Adalbert Waffling have had to began their study of Magical Theory at some point, and since Hogwarts is a school and Waffling most likely attended and we have a incomplete list of what extra-cirricular subjects Hogwarts offer, Alchemy is just an example given on Pottermore, it is not unreasonable to assume that Magical Theory is one of these 'by sufficent demand' subjects available to N.E.W.T.s. But that is only my opinion, of course. Ninclow 19:29, March 31, 2015 (UTC)